Follow Us on Google
Okwe Obi
Zuba Motor Park, a stone throw from the Federal College of Education (FCT), could be arguably described as one of the dirtiest parks in Abuja. Apart from it being littered with plastics, cellophane, broken bottles, it has no shelter.
Food vendors are equally instrumental to poor look of the park as they litter the environment with remnants with reckless abandon. Since it is in front of an open field, which has been converted to a toilet, it oozes across coupled with the puff of marijuana and other drugs consumed by touts.
Aside the environmental decadence, the vehicles could rightly be christened as wreckage, meant for archives or recycled for something better. The tyres are worn out windscreen patched multiple places, side mirror broken and the body dented because of rough driving.
Seat belts have gone bad no wonder the Head of Operation, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Zuba, T K Oladipupo, reminded drivers that the enforcement of seatbelt usage was not to antagonise drivers, but to ensure their safety and other passengers. He warned that drivers who emulate driving skills from foreign movies should desist, adding that those are film tricks meant to arouse viewers.
Most of the motor parks around Nyanya and Mararaba are peopled with aggressive fellows who are, at the slightest misunderstanding, ready to fight. This anomaly is sometimes done in the presence of stationed security operatives, who pay little attention to their unruly behaviour.
The absence of light around Nyanya Motor Park swells up insecurity and petty thieves who snatch people’s belongings.
Seldom a day passes without a passenger complaining of missing items like phones, bags and other valuables. Even the noise belting out from the speakers of herbs sellers coupled with the shouting of touts are deafening and discomforting.
A commuter, Zainab, lamented the deplorable state of parks. She is of the opinion that there should be compulsory cleaning of the parks: “The government should do something about. Everywhere is looks untidy and inhabitable. I sometimes get scared of entering these parks. I prefer to stand along the road and flag down vehicles. These people are brutal.
“Drivers are getting tricky. They bring in people to sit inside the vehicles as if they are passengers just to create an impression as if the vehicle would soon move. Amidst that, they sometimes stuff bags with rags, place them on the vehicles still to deceive commuters of enough passengers.”
One of the operatives who pleaded anonymity said they make close to N15, 000 daily from the sales of tickets: “Before any car enters our motor park, the driver is meant to pay N100. Even if he enters 10 times he or she must pay. If a vehicle that is not part of us wants us to load for him, the driver pays.
“We make a lot of money. But when the money gets into the purse of the Area Council that is the end. Nobody bothers about the sanitation of the park. Our job is just to collect money and issue tickets. If they like let them repair or clean the parks.”
Idowu Femi, a driver, is calling for an audit: “All those in charge should give an account of what they have in their possession. Our parks cannot be looking dirty yet thousands of naira are being realised from the sales of tickets.”
